Trivium set to rock Toledo

Even though the average age of the members of Trivium is just a shade over 26, the band has put out five albums, toured around the globe and been well-received by both its fans and its peers in metal, including Metallica and Machine Head.

“It’s been pretty, pretty amazing,” Trivium bassist and vocalist Paolo Gregoletto said. “I mean, that’s like the only word I can use to describe going through all this stuff and making all the albums and all the touring we’ve done. It’s just been an amazing life experience, and it definitely helps us to grow as writers and musicians doing all these things.”

And while some groups are content to stick within their respective scene and tour with other bands of their genre, the Florida-based quartet continues to make an effort to reach out to new fans.

Trivium

Having played gigs over the years with everyone from heavy-hitters like Slipknot and Lamb of God to the progressive Dream Theater and Coheed and Cambria, Trivium is on the road with hardcore/screamo outfit Asking Alexandria for “The Still Reckless Tour,” which comes to Headliners on April 3. While Gregoletto said that a lot of people and even the band were skeptical at first about Trivium and Asking Alexandria being on the same bill, in the end it made sense to play to a new and different generation of fans.

“The way I’ve always thought about this is like, 30, 40 years from now I want to look back and say, ‘You know what? We did every single thing possible that we possibly could’ve done to get new people into our music — to build our fan base — and there’s nothing I would change about what we did,’ ” Gregoletto said. “To me, like, turning down a tour like this because of not totally fitting the bill, that would’ve just seemed like a mistake.

“We’re playing to all these young, new kids, and it’s exciting to be sort of a new band again to some people.”

Rounded out by Matt Heafy (guitar, lead vocals), Corey Beaulieu (guitar, vocals) and Nick Augusto (drums), Trivium rose out of an era when pop-punk reigned supreme in the late ’90s and early 2000s and steadily built a name for itself since releasing its full-length debut, “Ember to Inferno” in 2003. For Gregoletto, who joined the band in 2004, it’s been a fun ride to not only enjoy the rise of Trivium, but also see metal’s influence on many of today’s punk artists.

“I love that kids are getting into it now,” Gregoletto said of metal. “I mean, there’s so many bands that have heavy influence in their sound, and to think back when I was in school there was nothing like that at all. Like, pop-punk now has breakdowns and is heavy at points.

“It’s just funny to me to think that people just totally thought of metal as like this ‘Only older guys listen to that,’ and ‘That’s outdated,’ and ‘Playing fast stuff is never going to be cool or popular’ and ‘Screaming and heavy vocals just will never have their place in mainstream music.’ But I mean, it’s definitely come full circle again.”

Throughout those changes in music, Trivium has been able to carve out its niche. The band sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide with 2005’s “Ascendancy” and has played some of rock’s biggest festivals in Download, Soundwave and the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. And while all the band’s albums maintain its identity as a metal outfit, Trivium has also not been afraid to experiment, which is evident on its latest release, “In Waves.”

Unlike Trivium’s past two albums, “Shogun” and “The Crusade,” Heafy and the guys took more of an abstract approach with “In Waves,” deciding to leave the meanings of the songs and the artwork up to the interpretation of the listener. With his favorite album being Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” Gregoletto liked the idea of the record being mystical.

“It was just so mysterious and I loved that,” Gregoletto said about ‘Master of Puppets.’ “I hope that with ‘In Waves,’ that people when they hear it—because Matt hasn’t explained what he was writing about or what it means to him—they’re having to use their imagination of what it means to them and what it could mean.”

In the meantime, Trivium is enjoying the road and already writing for the next record.

“Right now, our main focus is getting in front of any new audience that we can,” Gregoletto said. “And we’ve got a lot of killer tours lined up — one last big U.S. one lined up in the summer that’s going to be pretty badass once it gets announced.”

On April 3, Trivium and Asking Alexandria will perform a show that also features I See Stars, Motionless in White, The Amity Affliction and The Farther I Fall at Headliners, 4500 N. Detroit Ave. Tickets are $23 in advance and $25 at the door the day of the show. Advance tickets can be purchased through all Ticketmaster outlets, as well as locally at Culture Clash Records ((419) 536-5683) and Ramalama Records ((419) 531-7625). Doors open at 6 p.m., and all ages are welcome. For more information, visit headlinerstoledo.com.

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